This question popped in to my head the other day…
What modern era position player has the least home runs-per-at-bat in his career? Is there anyone with none who has had a substantial number of at bats?
I actually don’t know what the “modern era” is so you’ll have to help me with that. Is that post-Ruth?
This is not a trivia question I know the answer to, BTW. This is a question I need you all to answer for me 
I DID Google it but I did not come up with an answer.
I googled “most at bats without a home run” and got this page. Looks like the all time champ (with 2335) is Bill Holbert, but he played from 1876 to 1888. Going to the post-Babe Ruth era (the Live Ball era) Red Sox outfielder Tom Oliver went homerless for 1931 AB from 1930 - 1933, which maybe is a little early yet; shortstop Irv Hall of the Philadelphia Athletics went 1904 without a homer, but that was in the war years of 1943-1946, when the talent level was severely thinned out and a lot of players who wouldn’t have played in the majors otherwise got a shot. For someone undeniably modern, you have to go to SS/2B/utility guy Tim Johnson of the Milwaukee Brewers, who went 1269 at bats, or basically 2 Cal Ripken seasons, without a home run.
Tim Johnson is better known for his later career as a manager - he had a pretty successful first season with the Blue Jays, winning 88 but missing the playoffs, but then had to resign when it turned out he was giving pep speeches to his players about his days in the Army in Vietnam which were completely fictional.
ETA: Looks like Jason Tyner is the only player to have more than 1000 at bats without a home run to have played into the 21st century.
1930 is definitely well past the time when home runs became a standard part of major league baseball so Tom Oliver seems like a good choice to me.
However, Tyner’s accomplishment may be even more impressive, since there were probably three times as many homers per game during his career as there were during Oliver’s.
Of course we cannot forget the immortal Duane Kuiper, who did hit one homer but in a career longer than Oliver’s and Tyner’s combined - 3,754 at bats.
Interesting, thanks for looking that up!
What’s up with Don Sutton on that list? Does he have a lot of at-bats for a pitcher or is it just due to his incredibly long career?
ETA: Missed RickJay’s post. Any more gems like Kuiper who have less than, say, 5 HRs in a lot of ABs?
Sutton did have a very long career, and was very durable, but even so most pitchers manage one or two over their careers. Even Nolan Ryan, who was a notably bad hitter even for a pitcher, managed to hit 2 out of the park.
Jerry Remy – 2292 AB w/o a home run (retired in 1984)
Duane Kuiper – 1997 homerless ABs (retired in 1985)
Al Newman – 1893 AB (through 1992)
Don Sutton – 1354 AB (he was a pitcher, of course, and spent the end of his career in the AL)
Lowest Career HR averages:
7500+ AB: Larry Bowa (1970-85) HR Ave: 1.069 (the number of HRs he’d hit in a 600 AB season)
5000+ AB: (Most names were in the dead ball era)
2500+ AB: Duane Kuiper (1974-85) HR Ave: 0.178
Where does Juan Pierre fall on this list? I recall hearing last year that he has had a total of 14 homers, and he’s been around for quite a while at this point, hasn’t he?
ETA: Pierre has 13 homers in 5,420 ABs, apparently.
Where does Dal Maxville figure into this?
(Please forgive if misspelled, misremembered, or whatever.)
14 seasons, 3443 AB, 6 home runs. Maxvill wasn’t one to flaunt his power.
By contrast, Mario Mendoza, for whom the term “Mendoza line” was coined, cranked out 4 home runs in a mere 1337 AB.
Bud Harrelson: 7 HR in 4744 AB. Several of these were inside the park.
Not exactly the answer you were looking for, though possibly interesting to those here: Pete Rose has “the most at-bats without a homerun” with 12,393. Of course, he did homer in his other 160 at bats.
Jim Abbot have any home runs?
Rafael Belliard hit only two homeruns in his career, one in 1987 for the Pirates, another in 1997 for the Braves. Not counting the ABs from either year, I still came up with 1655 homerless ABs between them.
No HR, 3B, 2B, 3 RBIs
Wow. They released him after his best season EVER. Well, as a batter.
Got the stats on Bob Gibson to compare?
Zipper, you’re from around here but merely a tot, I reckon, or you would remember handsome Duane, his TV commercials, and his baseball card picturing him with a broken bat. I understand that after he retired from the SF Giants and went into broadcasting, his fellow press booth occupants teased him mercilessly about his one and only home run.
I remember one commercial for a fast-food restaurant (A&W Root Beer?) where you could get a soft drink in a special keepsake mug. Duane was looking in a mirror admiring himself and one of his teammates came in all enthusiastic about the great mug. Duane gazed lovingly at himself and said, “You mean *this *mug?”
Yes, it was 35 years ago. Why do you ask? 
Okay - baseball-reference.com to the rescue! Since I’m not a subscriber, I can’t sort by at bats or plate appearances, but it does give us the longest homerless streaks by games. Here’s your all-time (and by “all-time” I mean “since 1954”) worst HR hitting team:
Name Start Date End Date Games At-Bats
C: Junior Ortiz 1989-07-31 1994-08-08 316 902
1B: Pete Rose 1980-07-01 1982-06-12 256 1038
2B: Jerry Remy 1978-08-22 1984-05-05 569 2309
3B: Maury Wills 1967-07-31 1972-09-25 215 893
SS: Rafael Belliard 1987-05-06 1997-09-24 585 1555
LF: Vince Coleman 1985-05-22 1987-08-25 366 1517
CF: Richie Ashburn 1956-04-29 1958-04-26 307 1232
RF: Greg Gross 1973-09-25 1989-07-25 493 1678
DH: Rance Mulliniks 1988-09-04 1991-04-16 108 286
P: Don Sutton 1966-04-14 1988-08-09 564 1354
1328 AB, 24 HR.
However, Maxvill’s career batting average was .217, compared to Gibson’s .206. Surprising, because Gibson has always been considered a good-hitting pitcher.
Likewise on the other end–the home run was hit off of Steve Stone, who still hears about it. Stone went into broadcasting while Kuiper was still playing, and Harry Caray used to bug him about it when Kuiper came up.